Miami, FL possible move
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Anonymous
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We have an opportunity to move to the greater Miami, FL area. I am opposed but DH is on board. Can anyone convince me this is a good idea? I have a stable job in DC and would need to find work. No kids. I spent a year in Daytona Beach, FL as a kid but remember nothing. My grandparents lived in St. Petersburg then northern FL near Gainesville. I wasn't thrilled with either, I'm not a big fan of the hot hot weather. Never been to Miami or anything south of the obligatory Disney trip in Orlando.
Please give me the good and bad. My industry would likely land me a job "downtown" or at least in a densely populated area. |
Anonymous
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I'm from Miami, born and raised, and went to UM.
Pros: VERY laid back lifestyle--my friends from home that stayed (most left for NY/Boston/DC/anywhere) regularly go to the beach (think of how one plans for a trip to the national zoo if you live in NWDC), are on the water, have bbqs, etc. The art scene is really thriving. The design district that has happened over the past 5 years is very cool. Great weather all year round. Miami is the gateway to Latin America, and it is AMAZING to see all of the different cultures there. Cons: Driving. Everywhere. Traffic is utterly brutal. The drivers are utterly terrible, like no where I've ever seen. One season all year round is actually boring to me. Most negative for me was that there is totally an ethic of "plasticity". Plastic boobs, plastic cards, plastic plastic everywhere. Very showy and ostentatious. It's fun on holiday, and everyone LOVES it for a weekend, but it gets old REALLY fast. Still, I am super proud to call it my hometown, and I ALWAYS will love it! HTH! |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks, PP. I don't think traffic anywhere could hold a candle to DC traffic, hopefully I'm not wrong though. Anyone else? *crickets* |
Anonymous
| Miami is great! It's only 30 minutes from the US (Ft Lauderdale).. It's obviously a joke but get ready for lots of Spanish and little English. |
Anonymous
Imagine everyone driving at 80 miles an hour while high on coke and you will begin to get the picture. |
Anonymous
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Super humid, all year round. Education is not a high priority, so I had a hard time finding people to have intellectually stimulating conversations with (and I'm no Rhodes scholar or anything). High focus on looks - tons of plastic surgery. Not at all unusual for someone to show you their before and after pics of boob jobs in the company kitchen during your lunch hour. Because people are in vacation-mode all the time and so laid back (except for driving), it's frustrating when you're trying to rush through a store or something.
The old stereotype of old people driving slowly and veering all over the road is inaccurate. The reality is they are defensive and trying to overcome that, so they drive really aggressively. Also, as someone whose grandfather was driving well past when he should have, their peripheral vision is shot (their blind spots are larger than ours), and they get confused easily (at least once a month if not once a week some old person is mistaking the gas for the brake and driving into a lake). |
Anonymous
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OMG I only dream about moving back to Miami - we plan to when DH gets offered relocation in a few years. I am a native Washingtonian, but I would definitely prefer Miami any day. Here are the reasons:
1) Weather - totally better there, cannot compare. At least 1/2 of the entire year is in the 70s. Here, we are lucky to get 6 weekends of weather like that - rain free. And Miami doesn't have rainy days like we do except during hurricane season obviously (small price to pay for perfect weather otherwise). And I think the summer there isn't worse than it is here - the average highs are upper 80s, and its tropical weather, much different than other parts of florida. 2) Beautiful - The trees are beautiful, the flowers are beautiful, even the freaking median strips, pink sidewalks, art deco and stucco everything, even mcdonalds is beautiful down there. You would just have to see for yourself. 3) Traffic - it is much, much worse in the DC area. But in Miami, nobody lives downtown, so everybody has to "commute" whereas here, some unlucky people chose to live inside DC and don't really have a real commute. 4) BEACH! (no need to elaborate here) 5) Culture. Miami has that very international, very Cuban, very hip, sort of culture. They have so many styles, so many songs that don't even make it up here. DC is devoid of style and culture. 6) Cost of living - much cheaper there. 7) FOOD! - OMG the restaurants down there are so much better than here. They have excellent seafood, italian food, latin cuisine. 8) Night life - the best in America IMO. DC doesn't even hold a candle, no comparison. 9) Pitbull - Dale! Now, Here are the cons: 1) Schools - I have heard they are generally terrible, although I believe there are charter schools, and many kids do private. 2) Hurricanes (very rarely bad though) 3) Crime - let's just say it's nothing like NoVA down there. There's a lot of car theft for one thing. 4) Roaches - I think more people have them there than here, and you have to have a pest control contract and have your place sprayed every month to keep them out. |
Anonymous
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I should add (same PP)
5) Job market - slow compared to here 6) Flashy culture - definitely more boob jobs, jewelry, expensive clothes, and $100K cars being flashed around down there than here. It's like the opposite of here where people dont care about those things generally. |
youngblackdude
Member Location: new yorker
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Member Location: new yorker
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| Seems like Florida & georgia or 2 main destinations for alotta people |
Anonymous
| Coral Gables is beautiful! Spanish seems to be the main language spoken. |
Anonymous
Thanks everyone. PP, are roaches really a thing?? It scares me that you had to make an entire bullet point for roaches. Any bug makes me jittery and uncomfortable and big ones are the worst. I swatted an enormous fly in my office just yesterday and actually had to step out and BREATHE because I was nearly hyperventilating afterwards before I could move it's dead body to the trash 
I briefly looked at housing on Craigslist but haven't done real or substantial searches. It does look like housing is cheaper than around here, which is a relief. What neighborhoods should we avoid and look at? I'd like to minimize the commute downtown as much as possible but *not* live downtown - we have a big dog and need a fenced yard. Budget would be $1,500 for a 1-2 br SFH. Hopefully that's doable, I'm not a fan of townhouses. I hope it won't be hard for me to find a comparable job down there..there are a good number of ads that I looked at but need to update my resume first. Would I have to take a pay cut or could I get the same salary I'm making here? |
Anonymous
| Check out a few episodes of Real Housewives of Miami. They all look like plastic Barbie dolls. |
Anonymous
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We considered a move to Miami a decade ago (for a potential job) but did not for a variety of reasons. First, we had no ties or roots to Miami or Florida at all - no friends, family, nothing. We could have made friends but I got the feeling that it was a difficult town to break into if you weren't from there, or if you weren't from Latin America. Parts of it felt very insular to me, and other parts felt very euro trash (young people with a lot of money wearing a bikini with heels, lots of jewelry, big sunglasses, and an expensive handbag - I was not used to seeing people fully decked out in a bathing suit). I did not like the general style and architecture of most of Miami - it felt very eighties and neon to me - it is not my style at all. The traffic was bad and I agree with others that there were a lot of fake breasts and a general air of materialism (although you get this in a lot of bigger cities). There is no question that I would have put my kids in private school - no way in hell I would have sent them to Miami public schools.
As for positives, the people we met seemed generally nice, I love warm weather, and it is nice to have easy access to the beach. We also LOVED the coral gables area - there is no other place in Miami that I would have considered living. Coral Gables is not cheap (most houses are millions of dollars) but back then you could have gotten a small, but fully renovated, cottage-type house for 550k (prices have gone up since then). The whole area just wasn't a good fit for me - I far prefer the Northeast/DC region, the West Coast, or even Texas over Miami. |
Anonymous
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I didn't post about the roaches- but know about them. They are the huge roaches like in Texas- where they call them "water bugs"- ha! Like that makes it less gross. They are huge, super fast and fly. I remember trying to get to the grocery store at night and seeing these huge bugs flying everywhere - then realizing they were roaches. I didn't go shopping at night anymore.
As for crime, my car was broke into right in front of the restaurant (people watched- didn't do anything). We called the police and were told they only come for violent crimes. Got the same reply when a gun was waived at us (since the person didn't shoot at us). Frankly, I could easily find a job in Miami but have zero interest in living there- especially now with kids. |
Anonymous
 OP here. This freaks me out!!
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